Dodge is a game by Artridge created for the Pico-8 game engine in 2019. You play as a circle, whose goal is exactly what the name implies; to dodge squares that come from the edges of the screen. These squares don't just destroy the player on contact, but also each other. Getting squares to destroy each other is the only way to get points, which are important as this game has no other goal. Complicating matters are "patterns", which are large structures that appear for a short amount of time and impede both player and enemy movements, and large circles that provide boons to the player, but have to be obtained quickly due to also being destroyed by squares.
Dodge can be played on Pico-8's website here
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Dodge contains examples of:
- Action Bomb: Hollow squares creating an expanding and contracting ring upon being destroyed, which is just as capable of killing you.
- Bullet Time: Black trailed power-ups cause enemies to move in slow-motion.
- Collision Damage: The only way for squares to harm you is to crash into you. This tactic works equally well on each other.
- Difficulty Levels: The game has Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties, which mainly increase the speed at which the squares move. Patterns and power-ups can also be turned off to decrease or increase the difficulty.
- Endless Game: With no end condition, you will eventually crash into a enemy or pattern. The goal is simply to get as many points as possible before then.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The game's name is exactly the same action you do in the game: Dodge.
- Minimalism: The game's entities are simple shapes such as squares or circles, and the game's palettes have three colors at most.
- Mooks, but no Bosses: The only adversaries in the game are small squares, and the patterns are more like obstacles than an active entity.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Both you and the squares trying to kill you only need to make contact with something once to be destroyed.
- Power-Up: Power-ups in this game take the form of large circles with trails that periodically enter the playing field. Circles with fire-like trails destroy all squares on screen. Circles with black trails put the game in slow motion. Circles with white trails shrink the player, making it easier to dodge things. These power-ups are as fragile as the player, so they have to be obtained quickly to be of any use.
- Ring Out: Squares are destroyed if they get forced out of the screen boundaries by a pattern.
- Scoring Points: The game awards you one point per destroyed square. Two squares colliding into each other gives only one point.
- Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: The most common way for squares to be destroyed is by them crashing into each other in their pursuit of you.
- Smart Bomb: The power-ups with fire-like trails destroy all enemies on screen.
- Timed Power-Up: Both the black trailed and white trailed power-ups wear off after a few seconds. The fire-trailed power-ups don't use this, as their effect is instantaneous.
- Zerg Rush: One square would be easy to dodge. A lot of them them, coming from different directions, however...
